Converge - Churches And Jails

Band: Converge
Song: Churches And Jails
Album: Beautiful Ruin (2018)
Genre: Grindcore

Last night I was starting to drag really hard, so I started listening to Converge again.  I'm really only familiar with their Jane Doe album, so  I figured I'd check out some of their new music.  I was pretty pumped last year when they were going to release it, but I didn't actually follow up with anything.

This isn't the new album from last year, but it is an EP that was released a couple months ago though.  I like it a lot, it's a fun, fast paced song.

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A to Z Runner Up: Fractionally Human

Band:  Fractionally Human
Song:  Intro
Album:  Intro (single, 2018)
Genre:  Grindcore, Deathcore

You know what's a good band to promo for you all?  My band!  Sure it wasn't actually my original intent for a runner up, but we just wrote this song and I'm happy about it.

I feel like we're a great runner up option, case we just put out our first song in months, so that's a rather big deal.  Mostly I'm just super proud of it though.

We don't try to make perfect music.  We used to try, and we found it just wasn't as fun.  Sitting there, mixing tracks to make them perfect, it was just weird.  Nothing ever sounded like exactly what we wanted, with the notable exception of out cover of Sabotage in 2015.  Pure gold there, it's exactly what we wanted.

This one though, where do I start.  We've had this idea for an album all about a hungry walrus since like, 2014.  It was just gonna be a funny joke thing, ya know?  Well then we lost all the lyrics except for what we had recorded with Orca, thus prompting a new lyrical direction.  We opted to go with the walrus being a total narcissist.

This song had instruments recorded back in December.  We were so pumped to have music flowing after we did Oh The Places You'll Die in the same year.  We're rather slow song... recorders.  But after we recorded the guitars for this song my brother's computer had a glitch with the sound card.  It took him months to get it working again, which lead us to April 9th.  We both had the night off, and all we had to do was get me to lay down vocals.  It was a perfect evening basically.  We knocked out the rest of the song and finished it up on the 10th.  I'm super happy with the steaming pile of garbage that it is, so I hope you can enjoy it as well.



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Puig Destroyer - Batflip

Band:  Puig Destroyer
Song:  Batflip
Album:  Puig Destroyer
Genre:  Grindcore
Language:  Strong
Bandcamp:  puigdestroyer.bandcamp.com

I feel remiss to mention Pig Destroyer again without bringing up the band that helped get me into Grindcore in the first place.

I was but a wee lad in the realm of actually knowing about Metal (about 3 years ago), and a friend of mine sent me a link to these guys' music.  They thought I would like it, and I did not.

BUT THEY HAVE A GIMMICK.

Puig Destroyer is the only baseball themed Grindcore band in the world.  Well maybe not the world, but they're the only one I know of at least.  I like them now though, and that's what counts, right?

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Pig Destroyer - Sheet Metal Girl

Band:  Pig Destroyer
Song:  Sheet Metal Girl
Album:  Prowler In The Yard (2001)
Genre:  Grindcore
Bandcamp:  pigdestroyer.bandcamp.com

One of the icons of Grindcore, the wall of noise that is Pig Destroyer fits rather well into my current mood.  Up until I did that Grind theme in May though I don't think I'd actually heard their music before.  At the time I wasn't super sure why I had avoided them, but the more I actually looked at their lyrics the more I realized why, haha

Honestly the only way to listen to Grindcore is to totally ignore whatever the words are.  These dudes say some awful things in their little 1 to 2 minute song windows doncha know.

Enjoy though, Christmas is coming and all that.

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Fractionally Human - Oh, The Places You'll Die

Band:  Fractionally Human
Song:  Oh, The Places You'll Die
Album:  Oh, The Places You'll Die (single, 2017)
Genre:  Grind
Bandcamp:  Fractionally Human

So I really don't like going too deep on this blog, so I figured I'd swing it way back around and post a very special band that I love a lot.

My band.

Fractionally Human is a project of myself and my brother that is intentionally sloppy dumb fun Grind music.  Some tracks are more "grindy" than others and others touch in the Deathcore field, but all in all it's a theme we try to stick with.  I'm vocalist, bassist, and drum programer, and Jeff plays all the guitars and sometimes bass as well, in addition to the higher vocals.

Now while I talked yesterday about paying attention to lyrics in case it's somebody trying to reach out for help, I assure you there is absolutely zero substance to the lyrics of Fractionally Human.  In fact, we intentionally make everything as gibberish as possible.  Example, right now we're working on a couple songs about a walrus with a god complex.

This song though is all from Dr Seuss.  I don't remember what we were going to do initially, but over the course of an afternoon we knocked out this song with only very minor changes to the original text.

For real, I love this noise so much.  It's all fun to make, it burns out in less than 2 minutes on the average, and in my mind even if you hate a style of music that's short enough to listen a little, right?

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Venomous Concept - Drop Dead

Band:  Venomous Concept
Song:  Drop Dead
Album:  Poisoned Apple (2008)
Genre:  Grindcore
Language:  Strong

Aight, screw this positive week.  It's literally miserable for me right now, so we're gonna return to music that just makes me happy, Grindcore.

I think it's the harsh honesty of the music that draws me to it.  The speed of it makes the music just a little sloppy, while also being aggressively simple.  Lyrics are simple, repetitive, and generally make me laugh at least a little.  I love how everything about Grind music and shows is so over the top it's just all pure gold.

So hey, maybe you can count this as an extension of "positive music" since it just makes me really happy, right?  If you're interested in checking out more Grindcore please feel free to check out my playlist I have.  It's not exactly pure Grindcore for any genre purists out there, but it's all the same feeling music.  I like it, it's a lot of solid pump up music.

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Black Mask - Bottomfeeder

Band:  Black Mask
Song:  Bottomfeeder
Album:  Black Mask
Genre:  Grindcore
Bandcamp:  blackmaskpa.bandcamp.com

I mean, I suppose I'll post one of these guys songs without talking about the time I got to see them live, but honestly any band that you can walk into without ever having heard before and leave a fan is a good time.

Any band that intros there set with some sort of happy Pop style tune then rips into a nasty mess of noise is straight up fantastic in my book.  The singer was right in the pit with everybody else too, so that was rather intense.

Shoutout to my boy Steve for inviting me to the show that these guys played at, I couldn't think of a more solid band to round out May-Grudergrind with.  Speaking of Steve, be on the lookout cause they've got a music video in the works that I'll be posting soon, so...  hype.

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Pig Destroyer - Sis

Band:  Pig Destroyer
Song:  Sis
Album:  Book Burner
Genre:  Metalcore
Bandcamp:  pigdestroyer.bandcamp.com
Language:  Strong

I really couldn't really have a Grind themed month without mentioning Pig Destroyer.  Originally toying with the names Cop Killer and Cop Destroyer, they decided to switch it up to a slightly more subtle option.  Though active since '97, they really hit it off in 2001 when they released their album Prowler In The Yard.

Basically every year that goes past their sound tightens up a little and the group improves.  Personally I would say dropping the political stance of earlier music is a good thing since they won't make an impact so much in a scene like this.

The really cool thing is that they were operating as a 3 piece outfit for several years, just drums, guitar, and vocals.  They picked up a guy on electronics in 2006, but it wasn't until like 2014 they even got a bass player.

Solid sound for such a stripped down act.

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Insect Warfare - Self Termination

Band:  Insect Warfare
Song:  Self Termination
Album:  World Extermination
Genre:  Grindcore
Bandcamp:  https://insectwarfare.bandcamp.com

I found out recently that Insect Warfare has broken up, and that bums me out.  I mean, they broke up in like 2009, but it still makes me sad cause I won't get to catch this straight insane sound that these guys have.

They're surprisingly tight for a Grind act.  Obviously there needs to be a lot of coordination in stuff like that but Insect Warfare happen to be better at it than some other people.  There's less noise in these guys sound than a majority of Grind groups.  I don't think that's a bad thing, but one of their guitarists has said that if the band were to reform and do another album it'd be much more on the noise end of things than the tight riffs of this album.

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Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Gringo

Band: Agoraphobic Nosebleed

Song:  Gringo

Album:  The Poacher Diaries

Genre:  Grindcore

Language:  Maybe?

Well firstly I can't find any lyrics for this song, but I know for a fact there's screaming in there.  Maybe it's just noise and there's no words, so...

Anyway, welcome to the second band to be featured during May-Grudergrind.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed is a Drum Machine band.  There's a lot of bands in the genre that use a drum machine over a drummer to simply make sure it can keep up.  The most impressive part of it is that they've been in existence since '94 though.  Bands like this don't usually live too long because of how abrasive the music is.  It's like how there's not too many punk bands that go on long too.  Ya grow out of it and whatnot.

That's what I believe the advantage of the drum machine is though.  Don't need as big a band so you can focus on the fun easy bits like having 3 vocalists and throwing out a mountain of sound.

Fun band though, and Kat Katz is one of my favorite female vocalists in Metal right now.

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Magrudergrind - Bridge Burner

Band:  Magrudergrind
song:  Bridge Burner
Genre:  Grindcore, Powerviolence
Album:  Magrudergrind
Bandcamp:  Magrudergrind

Geeze, how many times can I write this freaking band's name.

Welcome to the Grindcore themed month, May-Grudergrind.  I don't actually listen to the band, but I figured if I'm naming a month after them the least I can do is post them first.

I hold Grindcore in a special spot in my music collection.  Mostly because it's so over the top that you just can't beat it.  The incredibly controlled chaos of the whole thing is just a blast that I'm not willing to give up any time soon.  Plus my brother and I have a pseudo Grind band, so I kinda have to support it.

Not all the songs are about violent dismemberment like a lot of Death Metal and Deathcore either, they can be about normal things too.  Like this song.  This song is about a person who just can't keep their story straight and burns bridges with their friends.  Hella relatable.

Sure, some of the acts are absolutely awful, but that can be found in every genre.

I dunno, I just like shoving my opinions down people's faces, so here's some good old tunes to love.  Chao.

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A to Z 2K17: B is for Black Mask

Band:  Black Mask
Song:  Extinction
Album:  Lost Below
Genre:  Grindcore

Not as pleasant a song as letter A, I can at least reassure you that this song is only 55 seconds long.  I was gonna link to the music video, but I feel like I'd have had to tag an epilepsy warning because dang, that was a lot of flashing.

I really love Grind.  The songs are short and aggressive and as such can keep my attention.  Interestingly enough, I sometimes feel like the songs are almost too long, ya know?  Well, I'm sure most of you will feel that this song is far too long, but that's just how it is when I post songs people will hate.

I majorly feel that this is my favorite genre of music.  Sure, I listen to a lot of Rap and tamer Metal, but when it comes to what I like performing and such this is such a great style of music.  It's like a trainwreck.

Black Mask though, let's actually talk about them for a second.  They were a straight up amazing live show.  I saw them opening for some guys I ended up not really caring for, but hot dang, Black Mask brought the house down.  The set up on the floor of the house and the singer managed to belt out the song while also dancing around in the pit like a maniac.  So much energy was brought to the show at that point, so good.

Well then, Like, Comment, Share, the works.  Lemme know what you'd like to hear down the line, I can get some stuff after the A to Z is over as long as you stick around.

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Converge - Thaw

Band:  Converge
Genre:  Hardcore, Grindcore

There's something about the extremely confined yet chaotic noise that tends to be Grindcore.  It's a psychotic mess, but then it all comes together to punch you in the face really hard and move on.

I feel like if I was hired to sell music to people I probably would either do really well or really terribly, but no in between ground at all.  I sell based on the emotion usually, and honestly that doesn't always reach people.  I can always appreciate technically beautiful music, but at the same time I base most of my music love on whatever I tie it to.

Also I dunno if you guys noticed, but the last week plus was all bands that started with the letter C.  An unofficial theme of sorts to launch into a real theme week tomorrow.  It's gonna be good.  Hella emotional.

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Insect Warfare - Manipulator

Band:  Insect Warfare
Genre:  Grindcore
Language:  Strong

Let's ring in the new year with an appalling noise, eh?

Insect Warfare is a band that my brother usually brings up to use as a name to make people think "What on earth are you talking about".  It's a name that sounds like some sort of joke, or some sort of weird Punk band.  In reality they're one of the bigger names in Grindcore, which is probably worse than all the other stuff you'd think they are.

I like them though, their songs are short enough to keep my attention and catchy enough to make me listen to them in the first place.

Whatever though, Happy New Year!

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Converge - Homewrecker

Band:  Converge
Genre:  Grindcore

Welcome to the music you didn't know you'd head before, Grindcore.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Noah, you're stupid; this can't possible be music, it's just trash."

Well I can't argue that a lot of this is just noise, but don't leave just yet.

There's a lot of aspects about Grindcore that's just a lot of noise.  Bands like Wormrot and Insect Warfare can be rather noise based with an emphasis on speed and whatnot, but there are a couple Grind acts that manage to swing having some rhythm to their sound as well.  Also most Grind bands keep their songs under 2 minutes which is really different.

Maybe not this Converge song, but they have a lot of elements like that in addition to Agoraphobic Nosebleed and others.  I'm posting this song cause I happen to be in love with it right now.

Now I'm sure you're waiting for me to get to the point I was making before about how you might not have known you've heard this style before.  Well it's actually kinda funny.

Movies.

Movies try to keep budget low when possible, right?  Well one really successful way of doing that is keeping the licensed music you use to a minimum.  Let's say you need a really specific sound to make people understand that the neighbor kid is a bad influence?  Well you need Metal music for that, good people don't listen to that trash, right?

Well nothing sounds more like trashy noise to people that don't listen to Metal quite in the same way that Grindcore does.  It has a chaotic sound to it that helps people immediately make assumptions.  And because I don't think I know of a single Grindcore band that get's legit attention their songs are usually cheap; hence movie's using them here and there.

Fun fact of the day for ya.  Also most Grind bands put on fantastic shows.  I saw Black Mask last year and it was a really good show.  They set up on the floor in front of the stage and where right in the middle of thinfs with everybody there.  Solid time.

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Week Of Evil: Pig Destroyer - Loathsome

Band:  Pig Destroyer
Genre:  Grindcore
Themes:  We're not touching that.

My brother listens to some really weird music.  Some of it's really fun, some of it's really weird.

This would fall under the weird area.

As far as Grind bands go, Pig Destroyer is pretty good.  Granted, I'm not really familiar with too many bands of the genre, but I still will call them really good.

The song and video are really weird though, so know that going in.